Ranking FactorsStudy 2017

Dive Into the Study

With loads of guesswork and assumptions, the debate about Google ranking factors is never ending and evolves with every major algorithm update.SEMrush is proud to present its own Ranking Factors study based on the largest scope of 600,000+ keywords from various local databases.

12 most prominent and controversial factors were chosen to shed light on what really impacts search results, allowing you to grasp opportunities before others. The main goal of the study was to identify any consistent patterns in the ranking mechanism that could be useful for our clients and the SEO community worldwide.

We have analyzed the following factors:

Direct website visits

Time on site

Pages per session

Bounce rate

Referring domains

Content length

Website security (HTTPS)

Keyword in body

Keyword density

Keyword in title

Keyword in meta

Video on page

not importantvery important

45%

is the differencein content length

between TOP-3 and20th position

10,000

is the difference in thenumber of referring domains

between the 1st and 10th positions

65%

of domains

ranking for highvolume keywords areHTTPs

49%

is the bounce rate

for the domainsranking within TOP-3

3-3.5

pages

are visited per one session whenuser lands on the website fromsearch

18%

of domains

ranking for highvolume keywords don’thave the keyword inthe body

All research results along with the key takeaways were structured and compiled in a PDF document. You’ll find the download link below.